Cheap Postage

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Title: Cheap Postage

Author: Joshua Leavitt

Release Date: November 7, 2008 [Ebook #27196]

Language: English

***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CHEAP POSTAGE***

CHEAP POSTAGE

REMARKS AND STATISTICS

ON THE SUBJECT OF

CHEAP POSTAGE AND POSTAL REFORM

IN

GREAT BRITAIN AND THE UNITED STATES.

BY JOSHUA LEAVITT,

COR. SEC. OF THE CHEAP POSTAGE ASSOCIATION.

The well-ordering of the Postes is a Matter of General Concernment, and of Great Advantage, as well for the preservation of Trade and Commerce as otherwise.—Statute of Charles II.

Boston

Published for the Cheap Postage Association;

By Otis Claps, Treasurer,

No. 12, School Street.

1848

Contents

PUBLISHING DIRECTION.

CHEAP POSTAGE.

APPENDIX.

Footnotes

[pg 002]

PUBLISHING DIRECTION.

Subjoined are the proceedings under which the following sheets were prepared and are now published:

"At a meeting of the Board of Directors of the

Cheap Postage Association

, on the 31st of March, 1848, Dr. Howe, Dr. Webb, and Mr. Leavitt were appointed a Committee of Publication. And on motion of Dr. Samuel G. Howe, it was

"Voted, That the Publishing Committee be authorized to procure the compilation of a pamphlet on the subject of Cheap Postage and Postal Reform.

"At a meeting of the Board, on the 25th of April, 1848, Mr. Leavitt, the Corresponding Secretary, on behalf of the Publishing Committee, reported the copy of a pamphlet on the subject prescribed. And on motion of Mr. Moses Kimball, it was

"Voted, That the pamphlet be printed for general circulation, under the direction of the Publishing Committee."

J. W. James

,

Chairman of the Board.

Charles B. Fairbanks

, Recording Secretary.

Boston

, April 26, 1848.

BOSTON:

PRINTED BY FREEMAN AND BOLLES,

DEVONSHIRE STREET.

[pg 003]

CHEAP POSTAGE.

For more than eight years, the people of Great Britain have enjoyed the blessing of Cheap Postage. A literary gentleman of England, in a letter to his friend in Boston, dated London, March 23, 1848, says—"Our Post Office Reform is our greatest measure for fifty years, not only political, but educational for the English mind and affections. If you had any experience of the exquisite convenience of the thing, your speech would wax eloquent to advocate it. With your increasing population, a similar measure must soon pay; and it will undoubtedly increase the welfare and solidarité of the United States."

Mr. Laing, a writer of eminence, said four years ago, This measure will be the great historical distinction of the reign of Victoria I. Every mother in the kingdom, who has children earning their bread at a distance, lays her head upon her pillow at night with a feeling of gratitude for this blessing.

An American gentleman, writing from London, in 1844, says, It is hardly possible to overrate the value of this [cheap postage] in regard to the exertion of moral power. At a trifling expense one can carry on a correspondence with all parts of the kingdom. It saves time, facilitates business, and brings kindred minds in contact. How long will our enlightened government adhere to its absurd system?

The London Committee, who got up a national testimonial for Mr. Rowland Hill, speak of cheap postage as "a measure which has opened the blessings of free correspondence to the teacher of religion, the man of science and literature, the merchant and trader, and the whole British nation, especially to the poorest and most defenceless portion of it—a measure which is the greatest boon conferred in modern times on all the social interests of the civilized world."

The unspeakable benefits conferred by cheap postage upon the people, are equalled by its complete success as a governmental measure. The gross receipts of the British Post-office had remained about stationary for thirty years, ranging always in the neighborhood of two millions and a quarter sterling. In the year 1839, the last year of the old system, the gross income was £2,390,763. In the year 1847, under the new system, it was £1,978,293, that is, only £413,470 short of the receipts under the old system. A letter from Mr. Joseph Hume, M. P., to Dr. Thomas H. Webb, of Boston, dated London, [pg 004] March 3, 1848, says, I am informed by the General Post-office, that the gross revenue this year will equal, it is expected, the gross amount of the postage in the year before the postage was reduced. Mr. Hume also encloses a tabular statement of the increase of letters, together with a copy of the Parliamentary return, made the present year, showing the fiscal condition and continued success of the Post-office. He sends also, a copy of a note which he had just written to Mr. Bancroft, our Minister at the Court of St. James, as follows:

(COPY.)

Bry. Square, 2d March, 1848.

My Dear Sir,

I have the pleasure to send you the copy of a paper I have prepared, at the request of Mr. Webb, of Boston, to show the progress of increase of the number of letters by the post-office here, since the reduction of the postage, and I hope it may induce your government to adopt the same course.

I am not aware of any reform, amongst the many reforms that I have promoted during the last forty years, that has had, and will have better results towards the improvement of this country, morally, socially and commercially.

I wish as much as possible that the communication by letters, newspapers and pamphlets, should pass between the United States and Great Britain as between Great Britain and Ireland, as the intercommunication of knowledge and kindly feelings must be the result, tending to the promotion of friendly intercourse, and to maintain peace, so desirable to all countries.

Any further information on this subject shall be freely and with pleasure supplied by, yours, sincerely,

(Signed) JOSEPH HUME.

His Excellency George Bancroft.

MR. HUME'S TABLE.

Estimate of the number of chargeable Letters delivered in the United Kingdom in each year, from 1839 to 1847.¹

The most important of the tables contained in the parliamentary return will be given in the appendix, either entire, or so as to present the material results in their official form. The contents of that document have not, to my knowledge, been in any manner brought before the people of the United States.

It is humiliating to think, that while a system fraught with so many blessings has been so long in operation, and with such signal success as a financial measure, in a country with which our relations are so intimate, I should now begin to prepare the first pamphlet for publication, designed to give the American people full information on the [pg 005] subject; this publication being the first effort of the first regularly organized society, now just formed, for the purpose of securing the same blessings to the citizens of this republic, which the British Parliament enacted, after full investigation, nine years ago. If we look at the various political questions which have already in those eight years grown obsolete, after occupying the public mind and engrossed the cares of our statesmen, to the exclusion of the great subject of cheap postage, and consider their comparative importance, we shall be satisfied that it is now high time for a determined effort to satisfy the people of the United States with regard to the utility and practicability of cheap postage.

Prior to the year 1840 the postal systems of Great Britain and the United States were constructed on similar principles, and the rates of postage were nearly alike. Both were administered with a special view to the amount of money that could be realized from postage. In Great Britain, the surplus of receipts above the cost of administration was carried to the general treasury. In the United States, the surplus received in the North was employed in extending mail facilities to the scattered inhabitants of the South and West. In Great Britain, private mails and other facilities had kept the receipts stationary for twenty years, while the population of the country had increased thirty per cent., and the business and intelligence and wealth of the country in a much greater ratio. In the United States, there was a constant increase of postage, although by a less ratio than the increase of population, until the year 1843, when, through the establishment of private mails, the gross receipts actually fell off, and it became apparent that the old system had failed, and could never be reinvigorated so as to make the post-office support itself, without a change of system.

In Great Britain, the government, after full investigation, became satisfied that it was impossible to suppress the private mails except by under-bidding them, which they also ascertained that the government, by its facilities, could afford to do. They also became satisfied that no plan of partial reduction of postage could restore the energy of the system, but the only hope of ultimate success was in the immediate adoption of the lowest rate. And although the public debt presses so heavily as to put every administration to its utmost resources for revenue, they resolved to risk the whole net revenue then realized, equal to above a million and a half sterling, as the best thing that could be done. In the United States, the government, without extensive examination, resolved to do what the British government dared not attempt, that is, to put down the private mails by penal enactments. It also resolved to adopt a partial reduction of the rates of postage; and without regarding the mathematical demonstration of its futility, persevered in regarding distance as the basis of the rates of charge.

A few extracts from the Debates in Parliament, will show several of these points in a striking light:

The Chancellor of the Exchequer, Mr. Francis Baring, on first introducing the bill, July 5, 1839, declared his conviction that the loss of revenue at the outset would be very considerable indeed. He said the committee had considered that two pence postage could be introduced without any loss to the revenue, but he differed from them, and found the whole of the authorities conclusively bearing in favor of [pg 006]a penny postage. And he conscientiously believed that the public ran less risk of loss in adopting it. Referring to the petitions of the people, he said, The mass of them present the most extraordinary combination I ever saw, of representations to one purpose, from all classes, unswayed by any political motive whatever, from persons of all shades of opinion, political and religious, and from the commercial and trading communities in all parts of the kingdom.

Mr.

Goulburn

, then one of the leaders of the opposition, opposed so great a sacrifice of revenue, in the existing state of the country, but admitted that it would ultimately increase the wealth and prosperity of the country. And if the experiment was to be tried at all, it would be best to make it to the extent proposed, for the whole evidence went to show that a postage of two pence would fail, but a penny might succeed.

Mr.

Wallace

declared it one of the greatest boons that could be conferred on the human race, and he begged that, as England had the honor of the invention, they might not lose the honor of being the first to execute a plan, which he pronounced essentially necessary to the comforts of the human race.

Sir

Robert Peel

, then at the head of the opposition, found much fault with the financial plans of Mr. Baring, but he would not say one word in disparagement of the plans of Mr. Hill; and if he wanted popularity, he would at once give way to the public feeling in favor of the great moral and social advantagesof the plan, the great stimulus it would afford to industry and commercial enterprise, and the boon it presented to the lower classes.

Mr.